M.I.T,
the new THAMES TV police drama series from the same team responsible for the
recent success of THE BILL, is set to have viewers on the edge of their seats
this spring with eight chilling one-hour episodes on ITV1.The series, created by Paul Marquess, will give viewers an opportunity to see a murder investigation through the eyes of those closest to the action, the Murder Investigation Team (M.I.T.).
LINDSEY COULSON (EastEnders) and SAMANTHA SPIRO (Cor Blimey, Tomorrow La Scala!) star as DC Rosie MacManus and DI Vivien Friend, heading the M.I.T., part of the Met’s elite Special Crimes Unit. DI Friend is the polished, professional type with a highly organised way of working and a regimented lifestyle, whereas DC MacManus has a chaotic family life juggling husband, career and kids.
Viv is fastidious and clinical in her approach to crime-solving, but Rosie is instinctive and perceptive. Rosie’s hunches often turn out to be correct, but it’s Viv who can prove them right with her talent for being able to uncover and analyse even the tiniest scraps of concrete evidence.
The all-male team in which Viv and Rosie operate include actors RICHARD HOPE, RICHARD HUW, MICHAEL MCKELL, STEVEN PACEY, VINCENZO PELLEGRINO (Casualty), JOE SHAW (Bad Girls), ANDREW SOMERVILLE (Hollyoaks) and HOWARD WARD – and together they make a case-cracking team on the M.I.T.
Each gritty episode will begin with the discovery of a body and continue as the investigation unfolds. We’ll only see what the M.I.T. see, including the countless red herrings and mysterious shreds of evidence that are part of every murder enquiry.
In M.I.T, every possibility has to be explored, no stone left unturned – whether the victim has been deposited in the Thames, pushed from the balcony of a high rise flat, or ritually dismembered. And the first victim proves to be a very familiar face from THE BILL…
Executive Producer PAUL MARQUESS says, “Although M.I.T. was sold on the success of THE BILL, M.I.T. will only feature any of our Sun Hill regulars in the first episode. We like to think that the unfortunate copper who meets his end in M.I.T. will be the first TV character ever to be killed off in an entirely different series!”
M.I.T. - REGULAR CAST LIST
DC Rosie MacManus - The ‘doer’ who’ll use her heart as well as her head. Played by LINDSEY COULSON.
DI Vivien Friend - The forensic thinker who believes only in objectivity. Played by SAMANTHA SPIRO.
DS Barry Purvis - The mother hen with a real passion for the minutia of his work. Played by RICHARD HOPE.
Dr John Cornell - Matter of fact pathologist with a thorough approach to his job. Played by RICHARD HUW.
DS Trevor Hands - Insensitive officer, with an inability to forgive and forget – likes to be seen as the hard man. Played by MICHAEL McKELL.
DCI Malcolm Savage - Smooth and straight-laced face of the M.I.T. department. Played by STEVEN PACEY.
Dr Fergus Gallagher - Off-beat forensic scientist. Played by VINCENZO PELLEGRINO.
DC Scott Granger - Eager-to-please new kid on the block who works hard. Played by JOE SHAW.
DS Patrick Lincoln - Reserved and dedicated to the job in hand. Played by ANDREW SOMERVILLE.
DS Jim Daws - Helpful and to-the-point investigator - pays great attention to detail. Played by HOWARD WARD.
M.I.T. - Episode 1· A busy street in Sun Hill turns into a crime scene when a drive-by shooting leaves a local policeman and a teenager dead.
· Officers are overwhelmed by the shock of losing one of their own and are joined by the Murder Investigation Team (M.I.T.) who try to establish who the intended victim was – copper or kid.
· The investigation, headed up by DI Vivien Friend (Samantha Spiro) and DC Rosie MacManus (Lindsey Coulson) reveals that the murdered teenager had a criminal record and the dead policeman had several skeletons in his closet. Evidence from his neglected daughter and some of his less law-abiding acquaintances suggest that his behaviour was not always on the side of the law that he enforced. Could his past finally have caught up with him?
· Some familiar faces from Sun Hill get involved in the investigation as it’s revealed that they may have known more about the victim’s less charming habits than they were letting on.
· The guest stars from The Bill include: Sgt Matthew Boyden (TONY O’CALLAGHAN), Amy Boyden (SASHA PICK), Supt Adam Okaro (CYRIL NRI), DI Samantha Nixon (LISA MAXWELL), PC Nick Klein (RENE ZAGGER), and Insp Gina Gold (ROBERTA TAYLOR). Sir Trevor McDonald also guest stars!
M.I.T. - Episode 2
· A three-year-old, unsolved missing persons’ case develops into a murder investigation when construction workers discover the preserved body of a young woman, Lucy Seabrook, in a concrete tomb at a demolition site.
· The M.I.T. dredge through mountains of old evidence from when Lucy was first reported missing.
· The team discover that Lucy had an admirer, Paul Wainwright (PETER LEE-WILSON), a regular in her parents’ pub, who can’t provide an alibi because he’d been so drunk on the night Lucy disappeared.
· The victimology suggests that Lucy was a fun-loving 19-year old student with a close relationship with her parents, Phil (BRADLEY WALSH) and Celia (TRACIE BENNETT – Coronation Street).
· However, further evidence reveals that Lucy was pregnant and led a double life as a loner who tried to buy friends by giving out drugs, funded by prostitution. But what had happened that made her feel the need to resort to such an existence and was it linked to her death?
M.I.T. - Episode 3
· The discovery of a partially dismembered body of a
child dumped amongst the rubbish on a Thames refuse barge, leads the Murder
Investigation Team to a painstaking search through tons of rancid and decaying
rubbish in the hunt for clues.· A gruesome revelation during the post mortem makes the team wonder whether the boy may have been the victim of a ritual sacrifice.
· The M.I.T. are called to a church where an asylum-seeking family are in hiding. Their two children have been reported missing – and DI Vivien Friend (SAMANTHA SPIRO) and DC Rosie MacManus (LINDSEY COULSON) realise it is their eldest child who is lying in the mortuary.
· The missing children’s parents are acting suspiciously and are removed from the church and taken in for questioning. Their unstable asylum status makes them wary of the police - so how will the meticulous Viv handle the very sensitive and political nature of the situation?
· With the younger child still missing (and as yet no body) the team realise that every minute could be the difference between life or death. It’s a race against time for the M.I.T., who for once have the chance to be involved in saving a life -rather than to be there at the end of one.
M.I.T. - Episode 4
· The M.I.T. are called to a lake where the body of a vagrant has been discovered. Within minutes the team are made aware of a second body – that of a young local teacher, Mark Ramsey, who appears to have been pushed from his 5th floor window. It soon becomes apparent that the murders may well be linked.
· The M.I.T. discover that Ramsey had made enemies since giving evidence against an ex pupil Raoul Jiminez (CURTIS FLOWERS) in a court case of a local gang stabbing.
· The investigation reveals that the case had made Ramsey a changed man – abusive to both his estranged wife and lover, and a cheat at work.
· The victim had recently asked for a transfer at work and M.I.T. find that the future of the school itself is not looking bright. What was Ramsey’s involvement and had people been scared enough about what he might say to kill him?
· Evidence from one of the murders leads the M.I.T. to a key witness in the other - and things start to fall into place for the team.
M.I.T. - Episode 5· A mother and son out walking in riverside woodland discover the maggot-infested body of a red-haired woman, Penny Wake, who has been garrotted and cleaned with bleach - inside and out.
· The M.I.T. are led to suspect the victim’s husband, Neil Wake (BEN TAYLOR) but he provides a concrete alibi which mean the team need to look elsewhere for leads.
· The team hear of another red-haired woman, Kathleen Munro (ANNA FARNWORTH) who has been taken to hospital, drugged and disorientated - the M.I.T. see the connection.
· They track down a man seen with the drugged victim, Lee Kemp (LEE WARBARTON – Coronation Street, Casualty) and discover that he worked as a window cleaner in Penny’s street after being sacked from the local hospital.
· The M.I.T. uncover that his job, transporting bodies to the mortuary, fueled Lee’s disturbed sexual preferences. But has his obsession with his fantasy life driven him to murder?
M.I.T. - Episode 6
· The M.I.T. are called to the bank of the Thames where a bloated and disfigured body is washed up.
· The team discover that the body is that of Natasha McKay, a 32-year old ex glamour model and wife of nouveau riche property tycoon, Dennis McKay (GARY KEMP).
· As they build up a picture of Natasha’s life the M.I.T. realise that she was a frivolous wildcard with expensive tastes. She’d recently embarked on an email relationship with an old school friend (DARREN TIGHE) but it seems that both parties had very different ideas about where their relationship was going.
· Some old acquaintances reveal that Natasha had recently gone back to modelling to fund her increasingly expensive lifestyle. But with such a financially successful husband, why has she resorted to such a life and was it a precursor to her death?
M.I.T. - Episode 7· A convicted paedophile, Dominic Morton, has been murdered and mutilated – it looks like the work of vigilantes.
· The M.I.T. find it hard to see him as a victim but DI Vivien Friend (SAMANTHA SPIRO) is insistent that the team put aside their feelings and remain objective to ensure they solve the case.
· The M.I.T. have difficulty generating leads and tracking down suspects as all of the victim’s police files and personal records appear to be missing – and the children that he abused do not exist. Why does the victim not appear to exist on paper? Did someone take them to cover up their crime?
· As the team dig deeper they are stunned to discover that Dominic, or rather Peter Taylor, was an undercover police officer. The M.I.T. must be wary of who they trust as they investigate suspects who are disturbingly close to home.
M.I.T. - Episode 8
· The M.I.T. are called to the scene of a savage murder in which a young woman, Ellen, has been viciously slashed and stabbed to death in a deserted shop on a busy market street.
· The murder technique of ‘tramlining’ suggests links to a gangland killing. A post mortem reveals that the missing murder weapon was made from two stanley knife blades glued together via a small piece of matchstick – a vicious gangland trick which prevents the wound being stitched.
· The Murder Investigation Team struggle to find witnesses who are willing to come forward. But how can a woman be slashed to death so violently in the middle of a busy market in broad daylight without anyone having seen anything?
· The team discover that Ellen was an investigative journalist who had been writing a feature on the local racial tension – delving deep into a long history of fighting between the local Bangladeshi community and a gang of racists.
· The M.I.T. come across a web of lies, deceit and conspiracy around the gangs and it seems that Ellen, too, had made some discoveries of her own. She was close to a major scoop which would put her on the journalism map. Unfortunately for her, there were a lot of people who didn’t want the truth to come out.
· Years of abuse had left the community shrouded in bitterness and, whilst the physical scars had faded, the mental ones hadn’t – with tragic consequences for the M.I.T.